Will court's word be the last on Proposition 8?

SAN FRANCISCO  Lena Brancatelli and Lisa Kirk already have a wedding date - Sept. 20 - and the venue - a Napa winery. They have registered for linens and housewares at Macy's, Crate & Barrel and Williams-Sonoma.

Now, the San Jose couple and their 12-year-old daughter are just waiting to find out if their marriage license will come from California or New York, a decision that will be made for them Wednesday morning when the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling that will determine the fate of California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages.

"Look over at your wife or husband and think about if someone was voting on whether you could or could not marry them," Kirk, 35, said on Tuesday.

The moment has been a long time coming. The ban, known as Proposition 8, passed with 52 percent of the vote - 7,001,084 ballots were cast in its support - the morning after Barack Obama first was elected president.

The case the high court is deciding was filed in May 2009, three years before Obama become the first sitting president to endorse gay marriage.

Yet given the number of potential outcomes and the high court's notorious inscrutability, Kirk and Brancatelli aren't the only ones with backup plans.

Same sex marriage supporters are holding evening rallies in Los Angeles and San Francisco where they will be recruiting volunteers for a campaign to overturn the ban at the ballot box next year if the court upholds it.

The justices could end up making a technical ruling that has the practical effect of overturning the ban but doesn't address the underlying constitutional issues.

If so, lawyers for the coalition of religious conservative groups that qualified Proposition 8 for the ballot said they would fight any attempt by the governor and attorney general to extend marriage to gay couples statewide, not just to the two couples who sued to overturn it.

"There will be continuing work to be done, whether it be in the actual courtroom or the courtroom of public opinion," Austin Nimocks, a lawyer with the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom who is part of the legal team defending the ban.

The uncertainty has made it impossible for anyone to say when gay marriage might resume in California, where such unions were legal for four-and-half months and an estimated 18,000 couples tied the knot before Proposition 8's passage.

Under one scenario outlined by gay marriage advocates, it could happen as soon as Thursday. Assuming the court clears the way for that to happen, many observers think the earliest marriage licenses could be extended to same-sex couples would be the end of July. A decision upholding the ban would delay a resolution until after the 2014 elections, at a minimum.

Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, who orchestrated the lawsuit against the ban, said that even if gay marriage is restored in California, advocates would remain focused on the states where it remains illegal.

He recalled the spontaneous gay rights demonstrations that erupted not just in California, but other cities after Proposition 8 passed.